Framing the Sound

Author: TC Conner

  • Hello World!

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  • Unscheduled Events

     I have no schedule for writing a blog post. Whenever something comes to me, in whatever method that something chooses, that’s when I’ll write. 

    I’ve been getting a “good word of the day” email from alphaDictionary for many years. The words that speak to me (hmmm, isn’t it neat that I’d use that phrase?) I put in a folder. I need to go through that folder one of these days and make a list.

    Today’s good word is opsimath, which means “a person who undertakes study late in life.” That word spoke very loud to me. Here’s why…

    I didn’t have very many chances during my childhood to do much learning. I’ll not go into detail, but suffice to say it wasn’t a normal childhood. Before I knew what was happening I found myself enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and I was only 17-years old. 

    The learning I did back then, for the most part, was strictly for getting through a phase of my life that I didn’t have much control over. Sometimes I wonder how I made it through, but I did. 

    Thanks to today’s good word I am pleased to call myself an opsimath. A pro-hobbyist photographer and musician too, and both tie in quite nicely with being an opsimath. 

  • The "Oh Well" Generation

     I know there’s a lot of folks who’re scared and worried about what might happen during the next four years. President Donald Trump and his unorthodox method of doing things is certainly a cause for fear and worry. We’ve not had (in my Baby Boomer lifetime) this type of leader in the United States before. I’m not a presidential historian, but if you were to make a comparison between President Trump and those that have came and gone before him, you’d probably not see any resemblance of what we’ve come to know as President of The United States of America. 

    I watched a video recently and this fella was discussing his take on the pardons issued by President Trump of those who had been arrested and imprisoned for the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The person in the video was concerned about there not being enough of an uproar about those pardons. He said that our attitudes about it were “oh well.” As in, oh well, what will be will be, or it is what it is, or oh well, we can’t do much about it anyway. 

    I guess I’m guilty of thinking “oh well.” Does that mean I don’t care what happens during the next four years? No, of course I care what happens. But deep down inside I know I’m just a bystander, watching from the sidelines trying to stay up to date on what’s happening. I can’t change what happens in the White House, so I guess I’ll just hang out here in my house, and mumble to myself as I watch the latest headlines: “Oh well.” 

    Planet of Political Perdition?

      

  • A Vision of Becoming an Artist, or Something

     There’s all kinds of information out there regarding “portfolio worthy” images. And if you’re anything like me (which I kind of doubt) it might have you wondering what the critieria is for such an image.

    I think that photography for folks who shoot for fun, again, folks like me, is a completely subjective art. Which brings me to another matter – is photography an art? 

    I should make a list or a chart or guidelines or … or … something to refer to when I’m out with my camera. On the other hand, I’d probably never refer to it. I never think before I shoot. Take the image below. I saw a couple of doves hangin out, I thought they were pretty, I made a photo. 

    A couple of years ago I joined a photography group on the internet. Members pay a yearly subscription fee and I did my homework before signing up and it’s been a highly beneficial investment. It’s teaching me how to be an artist, or rather, the founder of the group has given us permission to call ourselves artists. 

     He’s also created many courses on all things photography related that are available to members. I’ve competed several and they have helped me become a better artist. 

    One of the courses I completed is “Discovering Your Vision.” It’s been the hardest course for me to comprehend and I’m hoping to retake it soon with a another member of the group. I’m uncertain if I’ll ever discover my vision within the timeframe I have left on this Pale Blue Dot. 

    And if I don’t, and you happen across a photo or a piece of music with my name associated with it, I’d appreciate it if you studied it a while and created your own vision for it. Because I probably didn’t. 

  • A New Leader

     It’s time for a new leader to take the reins. And all I can do is hope that the decisions made during the next four years will benefit all of us. The benefits  may be itty bitty for some and quite extravagant for others. Who determines the doling out of these blessings is what puzzles me. But it always has and probably always will. 

    I’m not educated enough in politics to discuss how it all works, My basic understanding is that the president, congress, and senate are all supposed to be in favor of helping everyone else outside of that rather entangled sphere of things. 

    It gets even more tangled when I see the benefits he gets compared to what we get and I try to understand how the distribution system (politics?) works. Spock said it best when he was locked down in the engineroom of the Enterprise dying from radiation poisoning: “Don’t grieve, Admiral. It is logical. The needs of the many outweigh…” Kirk finishes for him, “The needs of the few.” Spock replies, “Or the one.”  

                                        

    My brother is an artist and sometimes I’ll give him a prompt and he’ll do a bunch of magic with brushes and paint and turn out something like what you see above. I have it framed on my wall directly in front of my desk. There’re so many fascinating and interesting things going on in that painting. And every time I look at it, I see something I’ve not noticed before. I don’t remember the prompt I gave, I’m just grateful he painted it for me. I think I’ll give him the Spock and Kirk exchange for a prompt and see if he has time to create another magical painting. Maybe “The Golden Age” would be a good prompt? 

  • All The Little Things

    They can add up, but trying to get an accurate count is impossible. Perhaps if I had started counting say around age 10 or so, I’d be able to show some kind of list of what those little things were. I guess in the long run it really doesn’t matter, especially when you’re on the downhill slide. 

    In my first post of 2025 (before I started this blog) I mentioned that I had missed the bus to Nashville many years ago. I was referring to my dream of one day playing guitar in a band, a band good enough that each member could earn a decent living. I wanted a career doing something that I loved, but that dream never materialized. Maybe it was just one of those little things. 

    What can I attribute that little thing to? If you start looking for what causes things to happen the way they do you just might find yourself so deep in the why and how that the who what and where gets lost. In other words, if that little thing I mentioned had become a reality, the reality I’m living today wouldn’t exist. And I don’t like the thought of not having what I have now. And what I have now is certainly no little thing. 

    I may not be able to count all the little things, but as long as I can tally up what I have now, I’ll be just fine.

    Me and my son AJ had a little thing going on the day we recorded this cover of “Weird Fishes” by Radiohead.  

     

  • Sunday Funday?

    I used to write every Sunday over at my website and then email the link to my loyal readers. Doing so has gotten to be a little bit of a pain in the patooty as I have to email the link after writing. Also, folks didn’t have the capability to make direct comments as that feature isn’t available on my website unless I want to upgrade to a more expensive plan. I added a page on my website where folks could make a comment using a simple form and I’d get notified. It should be easy peasy commenting here instead of how you commented using the form on my website.  

     Another thing I used to do was blog right here. I wrote often and included photos. Back then I wrote about gardening mostly as I was a gardening columnust for a local paper. The paper is still published and I’d still be writing my column if not for all the free stuff “out there” these days. But there’s no more weekly gardening articles in that paper, just a seasonal piece compiled from “out there.”

    As implied by the name of my blog, my aim is to write about photogaphy and music. And probalby a bunch of other stuff too, because I have a creative itch that always needs scratched.

  • Starting Over

    I should have kept my Blogger blog from years ago. Learning how to do this all over again at my age is kind of daunting. I’m not up to snuff on being a YouTube creator either. But there’s a weird need I have for doing this creative stuff. There’s two other hobbies besides photography that I’ve been doing much longer than YouTube and making photos: playing guitar and gardening.
    Lots of things then, for me to write/blog about. Why don’t I stop saying “blog?” I’ve never liked the sound nor the look of that word. I’m going to call myself a writer, not a blogger. A writer, a photographer, a musician, and a gardener. Why don’t I combine all four of those and start writing about “wriphomugar?” And if you didn’t know, writers have the authority to make up words.

  • Frames of Memory and Moment

    Female Cardinal

     

  • Welcome!

     I used to do this blogging stuff years ago but as the saying goes….life got in the way. 

    However, life has moved to the slow lane and I decided to try this blogging thing again. 

    I will write about and show you things relating to my two main passions: photography and music. If you are interested in either of those two subjects I have a few things I can tell you about each. 

    Welcome to Framing the Sound. I’ll be arranging things and appearances here a bit more to my liking as time progresses.